May!
 

Today's WOD included tire throwing, flipping, sledge-hammering and other fun with tires events :crazy: Came home and spent 2 hours digging up and replanting shrubs (that another functional WOD).

Happy May Day! What ever happened to dancing around a Maypole and sipping wine?

Mel

Maybe try bench pressing the May pole and mixing protein powder in with the wine? Just a thought! :lol:

My WOD is cleaning out the garage. It involves moving stack of tires too. :carrot:

Hi Meg & Mel,

My functional WOD was moving & stacking 3 m3 of firewood from my driveway to my woodshed. Took 3 hours for 25 wheelbarrows, moving about 100 meters. I"m extremely proud of myself that I was able to. I"ve been discovering again...we "women of a certain age"..we can do anything and everything.

Have a great may day all,
Rabbit

Tons of functional fitness here this weekend, clean eating...I need a day off!

It's pouring. I may drown on the way to the train.

How was your weekend?

Mel

Mel,

You are NOT allowed to mention any rain (especially not downpour) until we get some decent rain here. There were supposed to be thunderstorms all weekend and instead it rained precisely 10 minutes on Saturday (I timed it) and maybe an hour at 3 a.m. this morning (I was up and could not sleep).
I will go insane if we don't get any rain!

Lydia,
The house on the pipestem - is it the same you had previously mentioned? I know you liked one on a pipestem - was it the one with palatial closets?

Otherwise, not much new on my end. I did THREE hours of yoga yesterday (my regular 1 hr at the gym and the instructor announced that this is the Sunday with a 2 hr yoga class in a downtown studio [this is a once-a-month event] so I thought, why not. However, I did not enjoy it as much as I usually enjoy my regular class - it was supposed to be "gentle restorative" yoga and it was full of poses my lower back found extremely uncomfortable - I am surprised I haven't fallen completely apart). I don't think it was worth the $25 fee but of course that's hard to know without trying.
The gym added another yoga class (by the same instructor) on Thursday nights (at least for the summer) so that's good.

Shannon,
I was going to ask - which yoga DVD do you have?

Rabbit,
Thumbs up on the relocation of so much firewood!!

Alena

Oh my!
I just got a $100 gift certificate for The Keg (as a thank you from management for having done a lot of work on a difficult ticket [and the customer nothing but difficult as well, I might add]).

I still have a $50 gift certificate for The Keg from last year, that I intend to put to use when BF is here at the end of May. (We wanted to use it at Valentine's but they didn't take reservations and we were not willing to wait 45 minutes standing in a crowd).

Quite frankly, I would have preferred a $100 certificate for Petsmart (that would buy me a month's worth of kibble) - but I know, there that saying about not looking the gift horse in the mouth, hehehe.

Alena

Hi all,

Wow Alena, that's nice about the gift certificate!

Not much news here... it is cold and rainy. DD is still out on a sailing boat with XH, and I really hope she will be warm & comfortable. 2 weeks of this are very long IMO, and I'm afraid she will get ill. Normallly this would take about 1 week. I hope she'll hold up.

I weighed in yesterday...EEEEK!!! Not nice at all, so in spite of the lousy weather I'll bike to work today.

Have a great day all,
Rabbit

Alena- It's great when someone recognizes that you've gone the extra mile for them. Hope you get to USE the gift certificates!

After a weekend of physical labor, then a hard WOD yesterday, I was too tired to get up and do cardio this morning. I'll do my "stealth" yoga :lol: at lunch, then Xfit after work. I was lying in bed at 4:58 feeling my legs ache this morning. Enough!

We are having a long meeting stretching through lunch today, which is being catered. Since the last lunch that was brought in was enormous piles of pizza, and ICE CREAM, I'm bring my good old salad and chicken...and sitting as far away from the food table as possible. :dizzy:

Yuck- I guess I won't be doing stealth yoga!

Have a good one-

Mel

Mel,
Did you tell your coworkers that you prefer to be doing your own yoga (instead of running a class), or did they stop asking?

I wanted to get up early this morning and go to the spinning class at the gym but I had yet another insomniac episode (3 a.m. is my witching hour - if I wake up around that time, I very rarely manage to go back to sleep until around 5 a.m. or so). I am hoping to go for a swim at 1 pm or I guess I will have to throw in at least 30 min on the treadmill at home.
I need to go to the store as the fridge is completely empty - I used up the last veggies and other stuff to make myself my own supply of "minimeals" for work.

This morning, while I sipped my coffee, I watched "paid programming" - an informercial for Chalene's TurboJam. In it, she shows a little bar chart stating how many calories are burnt by a specific exercise. To my surprise, she listed Pilates as burning MORE calories than strength training. This surely can't be true?!? The difference was small (I think something like 425 calories per hour for ST and 447 calories per hour for Pilates) but if anything, I would expect Pilates to burn a lot less. How does it sound to you?
I know that sweat is not indication of how many calories you burn but when I lift I produce a lot more sweat than when doing Pilates.

Oh yeah, and there was also another infomercial for a juice where some dude stated how sad it is that these days, obesity is rampant already in kids of a young age bla bla bla - and I was thinking, 'Yeah, and drinking fruit juice is going to help them exactly HOW?'
I am not saying fruit juice doesn't have any benefits but the sugar content is high and you throw all the fiber into trash etc. etc. And of course one can run veggies through a juicer, too, but I don't expect too many kids chugging spinach - kale - celery stalks juice voluntarily.
And that, dear ladies, is my rant for today.

:-)

Alena

OK, this is turning into the Mel and Alena thread.

What do you all want to do here?

Mel

haha HI!!

I'm sorry I've been slacking so badly. I just turned in my final last night though.

This morning, I couldn't sleep so I got up at 5:30, checked out the Crossfit WOD, did a 15 minute warmup on the elliptical, did the WOD and then took the dogs for a 30 minute brisk walk.

I've been pondering Crossfit a bit more as I generally do now and again but the locations still suck for me :( I may do the WOD for now or at least mix it into the other stuff I'm doing.

ETA: God help me, I just emailed the closest Crossfit which seems to be pretty active (and even had their picture recently featured on the main Crossfit page). I keep telling myself things like if I went there after work, it'd be against traffic...

:wave: I'm here! Still lifting, but only 2X a week and I really need to get back to 3X a week. I keep thinking things will calm down. Summer is right around the corner, and is always a slower pace for us. Yay, summer!

Get together for coffee? :)

I'm here too, in the gym every morning. Trying to find the balance between fitness and aggravating my stupid back issues. :rolleyes:

Could I join in here? I'm not to the level that you guys are, but it would be nice to talk with you guys and get feedback on my workouts.

Welcome Eumie!!

Checkin' in. :wave:

Crazy Crazy busy here. I just received a call stating someone wanted to walk through my house....they were sitting in my driveway. UHG. I have a playdate for my kindergartner and just returned from the gym. Thank goodness I'm a neat freak. Seriously.

This is the first week where it looks like I'm going to be in the gym for five consecutive days. :yay: It feels so freaking good to be able to play with my workouts a little bit.

Alena: The house on the pipestem was a different property. It's a mute point now, both have sold. The houses seem to be moving really quick. Not uncommon for them to be on the market less than a week. If it sits for two or three weeks then I begin to wonder what's wrong with it. It's such a contrast to the market I'm selling in. Here...the houses seem to be listed for a least a month if not more. No matter, I have not control over this and the fact is...it just takes one buyer.

Nelie: I've been thinking of joining CrossFit Fairfax after I relocate. Really depends upon which area I settle in though.

Eumie: Welcome :D We are at all different levels here so feel free to jump in!

My inlaws are selling their house in Burke, VA and it is going fast. Basically, they live in a good neighborhood for services and transportation and someone heard that they might be selling and next thing you know they have a buyer without ever putting their house on the market. They are just working out the details.

Glad to see everybody is still alive and kicking.

The pool didn't work out yesterday, there were people in my pool :tantrum: so I had to return to work. I did 50 minutes on the treadmill instead.

Better luck with the swimming today, but that will be my only exercise for today. I have to run to the grocery store and cook because my fridge is completely empty.

My good news for today (well, good for me) is that I approached my gym and asked about possible adjustment of my membership rate. My reasoning was Zumba now has to be paid for separately (on top of the reg. membership); a lot of classes I used to take are not available any more and on top of that, I am eligible (- a new perk of from my employer) to get membership at a gym located in the technotown where I work. It is the most modern and expensive club in town, with annual fee of something like $720 (I suppose they assume we all get CEO’s salaries) and now it's being offered to us for $320 per year.

So, I stated all this to back my request at the gym and I got an email today that they will lower my monthly membership fee from $45 to $31. So of course, I am doing a very happy dance. (I had to plans to switch to the other gym even if my gym membership rate remained the same – it is not convenient for me and I love my current gym. But I was hoping that perhaps they could offer me monthly fee of $40 or $39, I never expected $31!

Not to mention that in July the stupid harmonized tax will kick in and it will affect my monthly rate (a translation for non-Canucks: instead of 5% tax I will be paying 13% tax). Disgusting.

Eumie: welcome! Don't worry about level - we are all over the place.

Now, where is Shannon in her red carpet dress?

Alena

Alena - There are 3 gyms near me and each of them cost $70+ per month :) Crossfit are more around here but I don't know how much the one is that I sent an email to. I imagine it is around $100.

I actually had a question about Crossfit. Why is there a main Crossfit WOD but then each individual gym also has its own WOD? That seems confusing to me. I guess nothing wrong with it but I think they'd want most workouts to be consistent.

Can I join in? I just counted my workouts that I typed into dailymile and I have done 37 since April 12! Granted, some are very short, 10-15 minutes of pilates for example, but some are a lot longer. I was a complete couch potato until mid/end of February, so badly I couldn't even walk for more than 15 minutes.

You all seem like a great group!

Thank you in advance :O)

Red Sock, hi!
(Consider yourself warned - I quickly rename everybody!)
By the way, we have a new thread each month. So if you want to learn more about us, you can browse the previous threads. The APril's thread should be still on page 1 of this forum (April Is The Cruellest Month).

Nelie,
But I am guessing that your gym must be swankier than mine, or perhaps prices are higher due to close proximity to D.C.? (Please excuse my ignorance - I am only guessing from our talks here that you're close, I haven't checked the map).
I love my gym and it has the basic equipment but I wish we had stuff like a rowing machine (one or two Concept machines would be nice) and kettlebells. Hard to believe that such a hard core gym like this one doesn't have kettlebells.

Hi RedSox :)

Alena - The one gym I went to visit was part of a health care facility, tons of cardio machines, pool, a (machine based) weight training circuit, weight machines and a fairly small free weight area (big turn off!!). They had classes and I think maybe a raquetball court. I think they quoted me $79/month. I haven't visited the other facilities with similar pricing but I imagine they are similar in amenities.

I think.. I may have an appointment at the Crossfit gym tomorrow :( Am I crazy!?

Nelie- I'm EXCITED for you!!!! Crossfit is very scalable and I absolutely love it. It is more expensive than a gym- I pay $129/month for unlimited sessions of any type (we have regular Crossfit which is what I usually do, Crossfit stregnth bias that I manage to get to occasionally, a new class they are calling Crossfit Stretch but which is really yoga and pilates, and A boxing class called Fight to Be Fit). Considering that the "coach" to participant ration is usually around 6-8/1, I think it's a good deal.

Tonight's WOD was
We have been doing hero and named WODs for benchmarking every other day for the last 2 weeks. I did Randy tonight 2 minutes faster and with 10 pounds more than I did it last November. My form was ugly at the end, but I did it with the proscribed weight.

Welcome Redsox and Eumie!!!! :wave: Always glad to see new folks :)

Mel

Mel - I'm so nervous!! I have to pack my gym clothes for my appointment tomorrow afternoon and you all will hear about it. Part of me wanted to include in the email that I'm fat. Am I really so self conscious right now? It reminds me of when I was heavier and felt I needed to almost apologize for my weight. "Hi, I'm coming to meet you at your gym tomorrow, sorry but I'm also fat, hope you don't mind"

He also mentioned that he'll evaluate where I need to be, I mentioned in my email that I inconsistently do kettlebells but worry about my form overall. So I'm hoping he doesn't think I'm more fit than I am. Not sure I need an evaluation other than stick me with the beginners :)

:yay: NELIE :yay:

I CAN'T WAIT to hear about your appointment. I can understand your feelings of being self conscious. But seriously Mel claims this is scalable. And...you are paying them for a service. You will go in there, work hard, and take with you what you need to grow and learn. Money well spent once you get through the first five minutes of feeling awkward...remind me this when it's mine turn okay? :hug:

Alena:Nice job with the new fees! Love that.

Gotta go. Morning rounds to make. And...I have to rescue my iPhone from the gym....can't believe I left it there yesterday. They didn't call me. DH had to GPS it last night from VA. I'm such an idiot. Losing one of those things is like losing a diary...sigh. Fortunately I was able to remote lock it. :faint:

:wave: all!

Lydia - can you slow down a touch? Foot off the gas for a moment? There's nothing behind you, you won't get shunted. :hug:

I am struggling with the DB's D&V and a sudden invitation to make a business proposal. Not good timing with regard to weights, or cardio, or even eating. Or sleep. Just as I was getting into a rhythm.

Good luck, nelie! I'm keen to hear more.

:welcome3: to Eumie and RedSox.

I think Shannon and DH are holed up in a cabin somewhere. I don't think they are on the run but she wouldn't have said, would she?

Birchie -
Looking again at your avatar, I am wondering if the young woman has lace sleeves or if she was ahead of times and got herself a nice tattoo???
Who knows, maybe she was Kat von D's great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother. :D

Nelie -
No worries, you will ACE appointment!

Lydia -
How's the foot doing?

Mel is now carrying Cheryl's torch, working on converting us all into crossfitters.

My back is somewhat worse today. I have a feeling it is a result of the treadmill session. Is jogging bad for lower back?

We a brief, but intense, downpour last night. :dance::dance::dance:

Alena

Good morning! Back from my little vacay in the mountains, ready to pile back in at work. Ate pretty well while we were gone, did some yoga every day, no other formal exercise. The little break was nice.

Alena - I am currently using a lot of 20 minute yoga podcasts from yogadownloads.com, I also use some videos from exercise tv sometimes.

Back to comment later. Welcome to the new folks! :wave: Good day all!

ETA - Alena, just saw your question about jogging being bad for the lower back. I find that sometimes I lean too far forward on the treadmill, which results in lower back and shoulder pain. Doesn't happen to me when I run outside.

Thanks Shannon. Nice to have you back!

Silverbirch: Thank you. :hug: Just at this moment I feel myself downshifting. Not five minutes earlier I was feeling pretty uptight and well, just downright angry. I really don't have any reason to feel REAL anger. Not really. This move is a great thing for DH and the boys. I'm sure its because I love what I created here. There have been times through this year when the idea of not returning to this house and the gym I refer to as my home a way from home seems like something I just can't do. I've even thought about keeping my membership active so that I can return when I visit family for the first year. It will take me that long to readjust. But anyway, thanks Silver, after reading your post, I feel better. Weird. Guess you gave me permission to see how I'm allowing circumstances to run me. BEST of luck with your proposal! I'm certain it is frustrating to have it interfere with the rhythm of your workouts and eating. Sigh. Life. Right? :lol3:

Shannon: Glad you had a great time. The 20 minute podcasts are wonderful! :yes:

Alena Foot still hurts. I tolerate it though and workout around it. More lifting than cardio. Jump rope put away. No running. Even shortening the elliptical workouts. I'm throwing in Ashtanga yoga sequences and step ups on a bench in between my lifting sets to increase my heart rate. Not exactly steady state cardio in the traditional sense but its better than nothing. I see a doc on the 18th.

I have RETRIEVED MY IPHONE. :dance: What a a relief. A very big cosmic thank you to whoever may have found it and was honest enough to turn it in. It was a little doubtful at first. I KNEW its location because DH did a GPS search on it. Unfortunately, no one signed it in the book as found and it wasn't at the desk. One of the directors found it in the safe in the back offices. So grateful to have it back. I've decided that I'm just too distracted at the gym to have it with me. I'm going to be unavailable for two hours each day. Not such a bad thing really. :chin:

lydia :hug: Adjusting to move house is always such a big upheaval! I guess it's historical..I bet the roman matrons had qualms about moving vesta, the home fire to a different location, because it was their sole responsibility to keep her happy and ensure a happy safe home for the family.

How wonderful about your phone! And it really should not be a big thing to be unvailable 2 hrs each day...you can check missed calls and read text messages at your convenience.

Welcome back Shannon! Glad you had such a great vacay. I keep reminding myself to check out the yoga podcasts, they sound like just what I need to do.

:wave:
Rabbit

Just popping in to say Good Afternoon to everyone! I had a very emotional morning trying on two dresses. The first one I bought a year ago to replace the too small for me dress I bought over two years ago. Well the first one was enormous on me, so big, I couldn't wear in public because I'd be half flashing everyone. The second one I can't believe I just slipped it on and zipped it up, no sucking in, or anything! It's been over two years since I could wear that dress.

I cried for about 20 minutes.

Redsox, that is fantastic!

Lydia - moving is always tough and I can certainly understand your frustration! :hug:

Redsox - That is great :) Congratulations.

So I'm back from my Crossfit Appointment. We talked a while, he had me do what he called the Crossfit Baseline: 500m row, 40 squats, 30 situps, 20 pushups, 10 pullups. My pushups and pullups were heavily modified :) Oh my, he tried to have me do a pullup with my foot in a band and with my other foot crossed over. The bar is 10 feet off the ground. Scared the **** out of me. I couldn't do it so he had it so he put a bar in a band and had me pull the bar down. My time for my version was 11:15. He said that was very good.

Anyway, I loved it, he said I'd be a good fit but it is major $$$. Like $$$. They have a 2x/week option which is what I think I'd take BUT it is $145/month for a 12 month contract or $175 month to month :( I'm going to talk to my husband and if I am interested, we'll go watch a class and I'll ask to see if he'll negotiate the price.

Nelie,
Congrats! I was thinking about you when I was walking the pooches after work.
I had no idea crossfit is to pricey. I actually did look up a crossfit gym that is not that far from me (although not nearly as conveniently located as my current gym) and it actually looks like it more of personal training style of a gym (unless I am mixing up different places - this has been a while). There was no indication of price on the website.

Mel,
Question for you The Gardening Guru. Would you transplant peonies? I have one bush that is way too to a Waterfall Japanese maple and since the maple is not very tall and the peonies are quite substantial, there is some fight over space (well not yet but soon there will be once everything grows up another few inches).
Also, isn't it soon for hosta-eating slugs to be around? I have a hosta that seems to have some kind of disease, it's all kinda curled up and has holes that looks like something was munching on it. Darn! I think it's Stained Glass and I got it only last year. I had big hopes for it.

P.S.
Red Sock,
Congrats on the dress!

Alena - Crossfit's are class/personal training based so you have a couple instructors and smallish classes.

Nelie :hug: Sounds like you did a great job and enjoyed it. That's more that I pay....but you live in a more expensive area. There is an Xfit in King of Prussia about 10 miles from me with similar rates. For me, it is well worth it. Even if you do 2 times a week or every other month, you will take away knowledge of a completely different style of training. The effect on my body, internally and externally has been dramatic (too long to post right now), and that is after training for 8 years.

Lydia- you need a hug too :hug::hug: Really- cut yourself some slack. Moving is super stressful, you are almost acting as a single mom, and you are leaving Columbus which has been HOME. Your family is there and you've created a wonderful life there. I think you have a perfect right to be angry even tho it may not be directed at dh or any particular target. YOUR life is being massively disrupted and changed. But I think I know you well enough to predict that you will thrive anywhere and create a new home and life. :hug:

RedSox- :carrot::carrot:Congratulations! That can be emotional. I'm so happy for you.

:wave: Alena, rabbit, Shannon, Birch, the missing Cheryl, and everyone else!

I lifted late last night...well, late for me, and couldn't face cardio only 9 hours later. I did 10 minute abs this morning :rofl: and will do
"Elizabeth" tonight:

Mel

Mel - I agree it would be good and I actually sent an email saying it was a little more than I was thinking and wondering if he could drop the price a little. He hasn't responded, I don't know if that is a good sign or a bad sign!

Good Afternoon Ladies! Thank you all for the incredibly kind works of congratulations.

My back really hurts. I didn't do anything to it, it's just slowly increased in pain and feels like it's on the verge of a spasm. :O(

I hope everyone is doing well today!

Ice it, RedSox, but not directly on the skin. Have you got a bag of frozen peas?